Navratra empower us to lead a more disciplined life

Navratra is very special and pious occasion to introspects and clear our mind and soul from evils and impurity of the outer world. The festival is celebrated for nine days. These nine days are not just meant for fun and celebration. These can be done in other time in the whole year also. But for a small kid Navratra is full of joy, fun, celebration and to have a gala time. But people who are little older can utilize this time in its true sense and meaning which is self empowerment.First of all it is important to know the reason behind this festival. It is a festival of victory of Good over Evil. Goddess Durga who is considered to be the ultimate source of energy and reason for the existence of the whole universe is believed to be the only source of power and energy which is vital for our survival. She is believed to be the protector and provide us the power so that we can secure the victory over the asura or evil powers prevalent within and outside of ourselves.The asura are noting else but all the bad qualities which lure and inspire us to commit sin for the selfish reasons. They are so inspiring and drag us away from our expected character and behavior. These nine days of fast is not just purify our body to keep us fit but also provide us the power so that we can say no to the bad ideas or work that is our karma.But now Navratra celebration is under the influence of commercialization and marketing gimmick. It has become more a less a show business rather than a spiritual journey. We must leave in self disciplined and contentment and must say no to the glitter and glamour. It helps us in becoming more disciplined and focused towards our goals. We learn to serve humanity and fight the evil forces.So let us celebrate this festival for self-realization and for gaining spiritual and physical powers to face life in a better way and perspective.

Students' Oxygen movement view

10/10/2010

Character like Gandhi is desperately needed today

We do celebrate Gandhi Jayanti on every 2nd October but we hardly follow his ideology in our life. For generation X it might be an outdated concept in this materialistic world but if we deeply give his words a thought we will certainly realize that the character like him is the need of the hour. Today we want to be financial successful at any cost. Every thing in life has become a commodity be it education our marriage and even happiness within our lives we can't do without money. It is the only motivating factor in our life. Apart from this if we get time we think of our family, friends and then society. We have become so self centric that expecting good from anyone is rare. Character and morality has no meanings in our daily life and even school seems to be less bother about these things. They are not interested in inculcating these things in young minds. No doubt we are so indifferent towards each other. Does the society should wait and think where this cat race is going to take us? It is making us an individual without values. Not very far away in Indian history there was a person whom we today remember as Mahatma Gandhi the father of our nation. He taught us about the simplicity and ideology which suits an Indian. Can we afford to show the wealth for shallow status when more than 60% of our population earns Rs.20 per day which can hardly be the cost of one square meal. We have to think again before indulging into the collection of materialistic war as the only thing in life even if it comes through unfair means. Our Politician should also take a lesson from him that only post and position is not mandatory for serving the people but how many of them are here to serve masses? They are into the bull fight just to become a bully. The politics today seems to have no ideology they divide us on religion, caste, land and language just for their selfish goals. They should take rest and give thoughts to their action. Dear Bapu we miss you so much today that you can only inspire them and teach them what humanity is and how to serve human.

Students' Oxygen movement view

03/10/2010

Daughter can make us proud too

The half of the population which is women are still oppressed and deprived of their social rights and prestige compared to their male counterpart. The festive season is coming and Navratra are on the cards soon. We worship goddess Durga as the ultimate source of energy (power) and the creator of the whole universe. But ironically we do lots of injustice with the girls' within the same society. Their birth of a girl child is attributed with the sin or punishment and parents consider their daughters as a result of their sins. The whole mind set of the society has to be reformed because if we ignore the rights and fails to give the proper place to the girl child the society will not progress to the extent which we wants. The main cause of worry is the demon called dowry, the system prevalent in our society. This is the main concern and a parent start worrying for the marriage of their daughters soon after their birth. They don't even pay much attention for their education which is the only tool for ensuring their rights and social prestige. Now education has become expensive and the money has to be saved for their marriage is the common reply of the parents. The situation can improve if the fear of dowry demon can be removed. This is only possible by sensitizing the masses and by empowering the women by education. A girl child is as capable and talented compared to the boys if they can be given proper chance to groom and improving their skills. Then we can feel proud of them also. They have proven this many times whether it's the board examination or any prestigious competition in the recent time. There are many glorious story about them in our past also. The only thing is we should give them their due chance.

Students' Oxygen movement view

26/09/2010

Education without Moral and Human Values is Meaningless

Today we have lots of subjects to study in our curriculum but there are very few which are imparting moral values within us. We are not giving stress in our character building process. Not surprising enough we see the loss of the traditional values from our lives which was part of our ancient heritage and was something which made all of us feel proud of our culture and society. In our ancient time we used to consider guest as our god 'Atithi Devo Bhava.” But now with the change in society we have new stories in our curriculum “Atithi tum Kab Jaoge?'' meaning Guest when will you leave now we cannot tolerate you. What kind of value system we are inculcating among our children by these lessons is a matter of deep concern? This is not due to rising prices but due to the fact we are becoming self centric and selfish person. We hardly have time for others and we don't give a damn to them. This attitude will become more widespread if we have to study this kind of lessons in our school. Now how many of our children are staying with their Grand parents? We can easily do the survey. Now parents after the marriage are considered as guests to our house and not surprising enough we expect them to leave at the earliest. Because our daily routine is disrupted and we cannot afford to “waste “ our valuable time looking after them? These are the glimpses of our values system at present. If we don't know who were Eklavya or Aruni definitely we can't improve the things. Education must inculcate strong moral and cultural values in the child to make them good human beings prior to anything which they will become in their future. If we are deprived of these values we are no lesser than animals unfortunately born as human.

Students' Oxygen movement view

19/09/2010

Learning should be given more priority over exams

Most of the students are having anxiety problem regarding their results in examination. Thanks to Mr. Kapil Sibal that they will be provided with the grades making the situation little easier but even though the numbering of A+ grade will be considered the most. In short our whole examination system is basically based on mugging up and it doesn't assess our actual or real ability. There are many ill effects due to this inappropriate examination system.Recently the Infosys chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy gave advice to the children that they should focus on learning rather than just concentrating on their examination and results.In fact the bookish knowledge and the whole examination process has made us incapable and we are failing to bring the necessary changes within our society. We have plenty of subjects in our school curriculum but we hardly gain any practical knowledge which will benefit us in our coming future.You take the mock test of a candidate and just ask him what questions he got and the answers he has written for those questions. He will not be able to explain properly. He will forget the content once the show is over. Our whole concentration is to obtain good marks and clear the exam.But the result of these examinations is not taking us to pass the examination of our lives. Most of us struggle to utilize the knowledge we have got in our schools. The increasing rate of unemployed educated youth is the proof of this. If we would have given priority to learning over exams the things could have been different.The situation can improve if we go to the school regularly. A student must always be curious and desirous to learn. He must listen to the teacher with full concentration and try to implement them in his life. Surely his ability and skill will improve. The suggestion of Mr. Narayana Murthy is very relevant in today's era. Since many youth are jobless and frustrated, if they have skills in them definitely their will be lots of job offer for them.Education not only enlightens our spirits but also enhance our skills. These skills make you more capable and valuable in society. And by virtue of these ability you can change the society and will be appreciated everywhere.

Students' Oxygen movement view

12/09/2010